Leiter Impresses With Two-Hitter

Al Leiter made clear who the ace of the New York Met pitching staff is.

Leiter pitched a two-hitter for the eighth shutout of his career and Mike Piazza hit an RBI double to lead the Mets to a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Expos on Thursday night at Montreal.

Newcomer Pedro Astacio drew the praise of Manager Bobby Valentine with a complete-game victory Tuesday, but Leiter did even better.

“It was the best performance of the year,” Valentine said. “I think I got Al a little upset by saying Pedro had the best performance of the year the other day. Al came out against a hot-hitting team with the hardest game to win, 1-0 on the road, no doubt about that. He went nine, he was excellent--I couldn’t be happier. That’s outstanding.”

Leiter (2-0) gave up Michael Barrett’s double in the fourth and Jose Vidro’s double in the fifth as he pitched his 14th complete game before an announced crowd of 4,512 that featured a large crowd of Met fans behind their dugout.

“I don’t get many complete games, and I was certainly tasting the complete game--and the shutout,” Leiter said. “I don’t know how many I’ve had in my career, but I cherish every one of them.”

Leiter has given up only one earned run in 24 innings for a league-leading 0.38 ERA in four starts.

The Mets scored in the fourth. Roberto Alomar hit a leadoff single off Javier Vazquez (0-1) and scored from first when Piazza hit a double over left fielder Lou Collier’s head.

Milwaukee 7, St. Louis 5--Richie Sexson homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs as the Brewers beat the Cardinals at Milwaukee in Jerry Royster’s first game as interim manager.

Royster replaced Davey Lopes, who was fired Thursday after the Brewers’ 3-12 start, the worst in franchise history.

Sexson had a two-run triple in the first inning, added a two-run homer off starter Darryl Kile in the sixth and hit a three-run shot to center field off Luther Hackman (0-2) in the seventh.

Cincinnati 5, Houston 4--Aaron Boone got the Reds’ comeback rolling with a three-run homer off Billy Wagner in the eighth inning, and Jason LaRue singled with the bases loaded in the 10th at Cincinnati.

Houston’s bullpen blew leads in the eighth and again in the 10th after Gabe White (1-0) walked Adam Everett with the bases loaded to put Houston up 4-3 in the top of the 10th.

The Reds avoided a three-game sweep by stringing three singles in the bottom of the 10th against Nelson Cruz (0-2).

Florida 8, Philadelphia 7--Andy Fox singled home the tiebreaking run with two out in the eighth inning, and the Marlins bounced back after blowing a four-run lead to defeat the Phillies at Miami.

The Marlins overcame a 3-0 deficit and led 7-3 before the Phillies scored four times in the eighth to tie the score.

Cliff Floyd was hit on the foot by a breaking pitch from Ricky Bottalico (0-1) leading off the eighth, then advanced on a passed ball by Mike Lieberthal. After a flyout and groundout, Fox grounded the first pitch through the infield to score Floyd from third.